What happens to marriages upon the arrival of Armageddon?

by insearchoftruth 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • HeyThere
    HeyThere

    where is any of this in the bible? or is this just stuff made up by the dubs?

  • Apognophos
    Apognophos

    Laika: Ah, I see. That teaching never made sense to me so it's never stuck in my head. I believed for a long time growing up that existing marriages would all be annulled at Armageddon and no one would be married in the new system. I was appalled to find out that, no, the teaching was that marriages in place at the time of Armageddon were locked in for all eternity. Talk about a commitment. What an absurd situation it puts people in mentally.

  • DesirousOfChange
    DesirousOfChange

    I think all the men get 27 virgins.

    OOPS! Wrong wacky religion. That's actually another stranger religion.

    Doc

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2

    Laika you mentioned that children born in the new world can marry?

    I havent seen that one before...

    I always thought that there will not be children born in the new world?

    (Of course all of this is based on stupid premises to begin with)

  • NewYork44M
    NewYork44M

    Yes to both questions. As long as you don't die. Because as we all know those that are resurrected will be like angels, without sexual organs; thus, the third sex.

    Just be careful who you marry, you will be stuck with this person to all eternity.

    When you think about this, it is just one more reason to say the whole idea makes absolutely no sense.

    I was told that in the new order we will maintain the countenance of a 30 year old. So if we have sex for eternity, we will be having children for eternity? And our children will have children and their kids and so on. I think we will all find a limit to this concept of infinity very quickly. I also think those resurrected without sexual organs will be highly pissed off.

    But let's see. We need to get past Armageddon to figure out the rest. So, when is that happening?

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2

    So the new world will have the following groups:

    1) couples who are really passionatley inflamed with one another (at first...till it wears off) and keep bonking so they have smiles on their faces everyday while gardening in the panda paradise etc...

    2) couples who are frustrated that they are stuck with their mis-matched partners simply "because they ticked the right boxes" according the the religion but there was never any chemistry. They never have sex, and therefore are grumpy and bores to be around

    3) singles who are not married and are just plain wierd...(losers if you like) that couldnt find a match if they tried.

    SO, JUST LIKE EVERY CURRENT CONG OF JW's THEN????

  • blondie
    blondie

    *** w60 11/1 p. 657 par. 34 Marriage in Paradise ***

    After that universal war will have destroyed all those who are today ruining the earth, God’s kingdom by means of Christ the Seed of His “woman” will restore Paradise to this earth and extend it all around the planet. Faithful surviving couples will continue their married life after Armageddon directly into the restored Paradise. Single survivors will enjoy the privilege of entering into married life with theocratic partners and will have the happiness of raising children under Paradise conditions, with Satan the Devil bound.

    *** w56 10/1 p. 604 par. 20 ‘He That Marries Not Does Better’ ***

    After Armageddon the couples surviving will continue in their marital union. Others surviving in a different state, widowers, widows, virgin men and virgin women, will be privileged to marry. Whether there will be an imbalance between the available men and the available women surviving need not worry us now. Marriage then will be regulated by the Everlasting Father whom Jehovah God uses to fight the battle of Armageddon and to bruise the great Serpent, the wicked marriage disturber, in the head. So the Everlasting Father Jesus Christ will have redeemed his earthly children through Armageddon just as much as Jehovah redeemed Noah and his family through the Flood and as Jehovah redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. As all those redeemed ones belonged to Jehovah God, so all the Armageddon survivors will belong to their Redeemer Jesus Christ. As Everlasting Father to his earthly daughters he will give in marriage whomsoever of them he pleases and to whomsoever he chooses. That way there will be no poor selection of mates, and no one will experience a disappointment after marriage.

    *** w56 10/1 p. 604 par. 23 ‘He That Marries Not Does Better’ ***

    Aside from marriage privileges, the “other sheep” surviving the battle of Armageddon will have untold privileges of service opened up to them by the resurrection of the dead, and these privileges will continue even after the purpose of marriage has been fulfilled and childbearing on earth ceases and husbands are relieved of the obligation to give their wives children.—Acts 24:15.

    *** w55 12/15 p. 763 Questions From Readers ***

    If the survivor remains single and the dead one is raised shortly after Armageddon, they might be made companions if Christ their Everlasting Father pleases, but whether to procreate, we have no definite scripture to favor this.

    *** w54 9/15 p. 575 Questions From Readers ***

    After that final test there will definitely be no marrying or being given in marriage then by those counted worthy of the new world and having the right to eternal life, just as angels have that right.

    *** w51 5/15 p. 308 par. 8 Leaves of Healing ***

    But after Armageddon children will not be born in human perfection in fulfillment of God’s mandate then. Evidently what childbearing will then be authorized will cease before the married couples reach human perfection.

    *** kc chap. 18 p. 178 par. 11 The Kingdom Triumphant! ***

    After the flood of Noah’s day, Jehovah gave to the righteous survivors a mandate, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” This suggests the joyful prospect of human marriage and the bringing forth of children in righteousness for at least a time after Armageddon. (Genesis 9:1, 7; 10:1-32; Matthew 24:37) However, that will not be God’s principal way of ‘filling the earth’ with mankind at that time. How, then, will God populate our globe, thus accomplishing his original purpose? (Genesis 1:28; Isaiah 45:18) It will be by repeating, billions of times over, his great miracle of the resurrection.

    *** w63 10/15 pp. 626-627 par. 50 When God Is King over All the Earth ***

    The new start to fill the earth with a righteous race of humans will get under way after the war of the great day of God the Almighty is over. It will begin with the earthly survivors of that universal war, as pictured by Noah and his family when they emerged from the ark of salvation after the Flood. (Gen. 9:1, 7) Married couples survived that Flood, and their offspring married, when of age, among themselves. Likewise, the battle of Har–Magedon will not dissolve the marriage ties of those surviving it, and we may reasonably believe and expect that marriages by single persons surviving Har–Magedon will be authorized by the King Jesus Christ, and their marriages will be fruitful with children. Although children then born from still-imperfect Har–Magedon survivors will not be born perfect, there will be no stillbirths or miscarriages or deformed children. They will be born in righteousness, by righteous parents, in God’s righteous new order, and there will then be no need for artificial birth control.

    *** w60 11/15 p. 679 par. 8 Upholding the Honorableness of Marriage ***

    Now that the prophetic Word of God holds forth the hope of surviving the universal war of Armageddon, how grand a privilege parents today have of possibly preparing their children for marriage as survivors of Armageddon into God’s righteous world, in Paradise restored to earth!

    *** w63 10/15 p. 627 par. 51 When God Is King over All the Earth ***

    However, marriage will not be the only procedure contributing toward the filling of the earth with righteous subjects of God’s kingdom. The bringing forth of children by honorable marriage of Har–Magedon survivors and, in turn, by such post-Har–Magedon children will be approved by the King for evidently a limited time—for how many generations we do not know.

    *** w61 4/1 p. 200 A World Without Strangers ***

    The few survivors, however, will marry and bring forth children. There will also be a resurrection of “both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15) When the earth will have been suitably populated, most likely then childbearing will cease.

  • Apognophos
    Apognophos

    Wow, there you have it. I guess I usually spaced out while they were talking about marriage so I didn't catch the detail about people being able to marry during the Thousand Year Reign (but apparently not after...).

    I do want to say that I find the JW speculation bizarre about couples not having sex or the resurrected not having sex organs. The teaching was that there would not be child-bearing, at least after a certain point. That doesn't mean that married couples wouldn't still have sex. Since when do JWs teach that sex is only for procreation? I don't mean to argue over nonsense, I just don't see the point in misrepresenting JW teachings when there's enough that we can validly poke holes in already.

  • HeyThere
    HeyThere

    this is all bizarre to me....how do they come up with this stuff; it is so strange.

  • Apognophos
    Apognophos

    Well, that's a good question. I think a lot of it has to do with attempting to reconcile scriptures that don't go together, or taking scriptures literally that aren't literal (like the 144,000 in Revelation). These are the kinds of things which occur when someone with (1) too much time on their hands, (2) an active imagination, and (3) a high estimation of their own insight is allowed to publish whatever he wants about the Bible (I'm talking Russell, I'm talking Rutherford, and I'm talking Fred Franz). Then, too, the interpretations are often in line with the personalities of the ones writing. These men were some repressed, uptight individuals.

    Finally, consider the fact that this bizarre speculation is revolving around the belief in an earthly hope, whereas the writers of the first century only had a heavenly hope. So you have people trying to apply scriptures about angels or spirit creatures to people who would supposedly be living on earth. So you have to go back to why there's an earthly hope in the first place, which is because the number of Witnesses in 1935 was getting uncomfortably close to 144,000 minus the number of first-century Christians, 144,000 being the total number which they expected to be saved. So the earthly hope was introduced at that time and foisted on the majority of Witnesses in order to "save" the 144,000 doctrine. This takes us back to the question of why the 144,000 was taken literally... but I think we can stop here. Do you see how the Society weaves webs that lead to increasingly complex doctrines?

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